CR Blog
Visual culture on the iPad
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 15 April 2010, 15:42 Permalink Comments (9)
Dieter Rams' TP1 phone radio (1959) in Design Classics
With the recent launch of the Guardian's Eyewitness app and Phaidon's Design Classics digital edition, the iPad is already proving a tempting medium for design and photography projects...
The Phaidon Design Classics iPad Edition reformats the contents of its enormous book (first published in 2006) which contains some fantastic images of 1,000 of some of the world's best designed objects.
The app has just been made available on the App Store, priced at $19.99 (it will be £11.99 in the UK, but as Apple has recently announced, the international iPad launch has gone back to late May).
Renzo Rivolta's Isetta (1952)
From the images we've seen of the iPad version of Phaidon's design encyclopaedia, it certainly looks like a sleek interpretation of the three-volume printed edition, doing away with the cumbersome carry/display case in the process.
In the Design Classics iPad edition the objects are organised chronologically, accessible via a timeline on the right side of the screen and there is a wealth of archival photographs, original sketches, patents, prototypes alongside information about the product, designer, manufacturer and the object's historical context. More information on the Design Classics book and digital edition, here.
Meanwhile the Guardian has said that its Eyewitness iPad app, which compiles all the images from the centre DPS that runs in the newspaper, has been downloaded 50,000 times in its two weeks of being on the App Store. It's also the 6th most downloaded free app in the US at the moment, so a demand for viewing large scale, beautifully shot photography on the iPad is certainly there.
What with ustwo's recent Granimator app that Gavin blogged about here, it looks like there may well be a crop of art and design related apps forthcoming, that take advantage of the iPad's crisp display screen.
Jeremy over on magCulture has had a look through some of the more creative publications to have released iPad editions so far, most notably the Marvel comics app, which has already had a rather successful conversion to the iPhone too (I was perusing a great Hulk story earlier which brilliantly mimics the way you read a comic, panel-to-panel, without disregarding the overall look and design of the page as a whole).
It's early days of course, but it's encouraging to see some really nice looking, large-scale visual products transferring well to a format that people are only just starting to play with.
One issue that will no doubt emerge as a talking point for many however is the pricing system of iPad apps. Phaidon's Design Classics' $20 price tag seems fairly hefty and some magazines have come in for criticism for their $5 rates. The Eyewitness app is free, but then essentially offers content that's available already via the Guardian website, though at a much improved size and clarity.
(Of course, there's also the new iPhone app for the CR Annual to look forward to. That will be available at the App Store when the Annual edition of the magazine hits the shops next week).
9 Comments
How can you say that £11.99 for the Phaidon classics is "hefty" when the books retail for between £60 - £100? Obviously an app will never match the beauty of a printed object, but Phaidon look like they've done a really nice job there and I'd definitely hand over £12 for it.
2010-04-15 19:02:53
It should be noted that the print version of Phaidon's Design Classics is 3 volumes and retails for $117 on Amazon and $175 from the publisher. $20 for all that content seems like a steal.
2010-04-15 19:03:01
The Guardian app is free?! Good god in heaven that newspaper deserves to die a swift, painful death.
Photographers, kiss goodbye to the resale value of all that lovely stuff you've been slaving over for the past ten years...
2010-04-16 17:02:52
I wonder how many of those apps are flash-based. Here comes article 3.3.1 !
2010-04-16 18:37:30
an obvious shill for a worthless product that helps destroy the culture of print
2010-04-18 18:14:12
Most of these books/comics/mags look great in digital format and with the usability of the ipad I think it could hook alot of interested consumers however,it looks snazzy in all its slick highly designed glory but the ipad will ultimately become obsolete in a few years leaving all the print editions of books/mags to pick up where it left off and all the money spent on digital copies will seem wasted when you end up chucking your ipad in the bin (or recyling it for money) unless you copy them to your next ipad and you realise that hard back copy of your favourite novel from the local bookshop will last 100 years longer. Works on a temporary basis but there is still nothing like holding a printed copy in your hand.
Perhaps when they bring out an ipad with paper thin organic led pages which can display any book you want in physical 'book' format then it will be worth it - a digital book that wears and tears like a real book, dog ends and everything.
2010-04-19 09:33:52
I have a pretty big library (1.0 version... made of multiple layers of chewed up wood), and was toying with the idea of adding the Phaidon Design Classics to it, but was having an issue with dropping the dough (even though I do think it's a good deal.).
Now.... I have pre-ordered my IPad (G3 Fat-Bastard edition) and will without a doubt purchase the digital version. It's a steal of a deal, and if I'm happy with the content, I will purchase the heavy, analog version.
Win-Win situation.
The digital version will satisfy the 'impulse purchase' section of my brain and will help me make the purchase decision for the books.
The digital version is great for planes, trains, automobiles, hotels, etc. The analog version... not so much.
Neither one is still not good in the bath...
Hats off to Phaidon for being a market innovator.
2010-04-19 14:59:32
Immortal content should never be limited by fleeting media, media soon to be replaced therefore becoming obsolete.
2010-04-20 17:30:01
I love print. I've been in the industry for my entire working life, but the iPad represents the *start* of something much more significant.
http://www.ipadcreative.com/blog/2010/4/14/ipad-the-potential-to-permanently-polish-off-print.html
2010-05-19 12:37:42
Get the RSS Feed
Most recently commented
| Pretty Ugly or plain ugly? (21) |
| The iPad May edition (1) |
| CR June 2012 issue (2) |
| The £25 logo (123) |
| Olympics ticket designs revealed (19) |
Most read
| Olympics ticket designs revealed |
| Freehand: the software that wouldn't die |
| Lance Wyman in Norwich |
| The story of Pentagram |
| FF Chartwell: a graph-making font |
Subjects
| Advertising | (1082) | |
| Art | (420) | |
| Books | (268) | |
| Digital | (437) | |
| Graphic Design | (1223) | |
| Illustration | (675) | |
| Magazine / Newspaper | (215) | |
| Music Video / Film | (741) | |
| Photography | (368) | |
| Type / Typography | (267) |
